Sacha Baron Cohen: From 'Borat' to rubbing shoulders with royals

He's come a long way from Staines. And Kazakhstan. Sacha Baron Cohen, who once simultaneously appalled and entertained as fictional characters Ali G and Borat, (among others) is slated to meet Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, on Monday (Nov. 28) when the royal couple attends the London premiere of Cohen's latest movie, "Hugo."

"Hugo" is director Martin Scorsese's 3D debut about a boy who lives in the wall of a Paris train station in the 1930s. Cohen plays a stern train station inspector who rounds up children and sends them to an orphanage.

"The movie is not focus-grouped and it's not tailored for a 7-year-old in Iowa or Berlin or anywhere to appreciate," Cohen said in a recent interview. "Marty made a work of art in the same way [pioneering French filmmaker Georges] Melies did. I think that's a beautiful thing and an incredible achievement for a filmmaker to be able to do that."

Cohen is also reportedly on deck to play late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in an upcoming biopic.